Electricity is a far more advanced energy source than fire, yet it can do almost everything that fire can do.

Thanks to the invention of electricity, this fireless world was finally largely conquered!

The "Intelligence" attribute had finally begun to unleash its full potential. It rapidly surpassed "Strength" and "Agility" at an exponential rate, ultimately becoming the undisputed most powerful evolutionary trait!

The status of Dalton, the Twenty-Fifth Great Sage of the Nix Civilization, was equivalent to or perhaps even surpassed—that of Isaac Newton in human history.

"I have a question!"

Hearing the lecture, Jason suddenly stood up and asked, "Could it be that the Nix Civilization skipped the Steam Age entirely and went straight into the Electric Age? Aren’t their geothermal generators technically just a variant of the steam engine?"

"Yes... they didn’t really have the concept of a Steam Age."

Professor Hazel, standing at the podium, thought for a moment before shaking her head.

"Their steam engines did exist, but they barely made a ripple in their society. Because their atmosphere lacked oxygen, their fossil fuels couldn’t burn vigorously. Therefore, all their early steam engines had to be heated directly by magma near the lava fields."

"Because these machines could not be moved away from the lava, their mobility and practical applications were severely limited," she explained. "It was only Dalton’s invention of the electrical generator that truly ignited a great era."

"The advent of electricity not only improved the quality of their energy but also made that energy transportable and much easier to utilize."

"Electricity brought about a monumental qualitative change to their industry and science, triggering a massive upheaval in their society."

Electricity provided a massive abundance of usable energy, skyrocketed productivity, significantly optimized their industrial infrastructure, and improved their tools. This meant that the Nix Civilization had finally entered a truly industrialized society. Slaves were no longer needed to risk their lives doing the incredibly dangerous labor of the past.

Some progressive Nix thinkers wanted to abandon the primitive, brutal system of slavery in order to adapt to their rapidly growing social productivity. And so, a momentous abolitionist movement began, rapidly spreading across their subterranean world.

"According to this logic, the emancipation of their slaves wasn’t driven by a sudden improvement in moral standards. Rather, the property rights system of ’slavery’ simply became obsolete and could no longer support long-term economic growth."

"This sociological principle applies not only to humanity but clearly to the Nix people as well. Perhaps we can even extend it to other civilizations across the universe?"

"The baseline ’morality’ of individuals has almost no real effect on macroscopic social development. Only massive leaps in economics, material interests, or productivity can significantly drive social change," Professor Hazel explained solemnly.

"With the gradual improvement of social productivity and the privatization of the means of production, skilled workers driven by incentive mechanisms were vastly more efficient than slaves who lacked both motivation and advanced production skills."

"Therefore, in the more enlightened Nix nations, the benefits the ruling class gained from economic reforms far exceeded the profits they made under slavery. These nations gradually freed their slaves and abolished the system entirely."

"But in other nations, the annual profits reaped by the slave owners were still high enough to prevent their governments from reforming the system. Although freeing the slaves would have allowed for the free movement of labor and generated greater overall social wealth, the long-term benefits were ignored in favor of short-term profits..."

"The governments of these stubborn nations lacked a broader vision; they fought tooth and nail to preserve the institution of slavery."

"Ultimately, the only way to completely dismantle this system was... war!"

Yes, war had broken out once again. But this time, it wasn’t a war to capture slaves—it was a war to liberate them!

At this point, the history of the Nix Civilization began to heavily overlap with human history. In fact, it mirrored the abolitionist movements and civil wars of humanity’s past almost perfectly.

In terms of their subsequent scientific development and social revolutions, the Nix and humanity were practically identical.

They had taken different paths to arrive at the exact same destination!

They were truly far too similar.

Jason frowned, deep in thought. The cost of maintaining a slave-based economic model naturally gets higher over time. From an economic standpoint, slavery is only suited for low-tech, labor-intensive production, like agricultural plantations or crude infrastructure.

But this was entirely human logic!

In other words, human sociology applied perfectly to the Nix Civilization. On a macro scale, there was almost no difference between them.

Did this mean human literature and philosophy could simply be translated and published for other alien civilizations without losing their core meaning?

The cultures of both species were converging!

Yes, that’s it. It isn’t difficult for us to understand them because we use the exact same way of thinking!

A chilling realization suddenly washed over Jason, sending shivers down his spine.

Was it a good thing that different paths led to the exact same destination?

Absolutely not!

The Nix Civilization was not a success story! They had been entirely wiped out by the "Great Filter"!

Jason felt a profound sense of awe, followed immediately by extreme vigilance.

It was too similar. Way too similar!

From the initial vast differences in their biology and early environments to this gradual, perfect convergence in their societal evolution—what was the underlying reason for this?

It was incredibly strange, almost unbelievable. Yet, the progression seemed entirely natural. From an outsider’s perspective, this evolutionary path even felt inevitable!

Could he point out any flaws in the logic? No.

Did it make sense to maintain slavery in an era of high-tech productivity? Of course not!

But why did the fundamental way of thinking between two entirely alien civilizations gradually become identical? Was there an invisible hand manipulating these identical historical trajectories?

Is it possible that... all civilizations in the universe end up like this? Jason pondered, his thoughts growing heavier.

Every civilization eventually embarked on the exact same path, only to become trapped in identical societal patterns, forever confined to their home planets...

Did this convergence create a massive, insurmountable Great Filter?!

This wasn’t just Jason’s theory; many of the scientists in the room were having the exact same thought, and it put everyone on high alert.

Just as they feared, the subsequent development of the Nix Civilization followed humanity’s historical path almost perfectly. Although the exact chronological order of a few technological and social milestones differed slightly, the core progression was identical.

Following the era of Great Sage Dalton and the advent of electricity, the Nix people were finally freed from the constraints of a fireless world. Their science, technology, and social productivity began to explode.

But they weren’t satisfied. They began to deeply study the fundamental nature of magma to extract even more energy!

Their factories’ electricity primarily came from magma, but where did the energy inside the magma come from?

Why did this scorching liquid rock generate so much heat in the first place?

This was a profound mystery that had plagued the Nix people for centuries!

Throughout their history, countless brilliant Nix scholars had pondered this question, but no one could find a rational scientific explanation. Magma was the foundational energy source for their entire underground ecosystem. Did its inexhaustible power just appear out of thin air?

The problem was so complex that even their greatest historical Sages hadn’t been able to crack it.

These incomprehensible mysteries often bred confusion and existential emptiness. From ancient times to their modern era, the Nix people had developed various religions, all attributing the infinite energy of the magma to an omnipotent, ethereal "god."

Yet, these modern scientists actually wanted to study the magma and challenge the gods?

At first, the religious zealots were dismissive, finding the scientists’ efforts amusing. They figured that no matter how much research was done, it would be a futile waste of time. It wasn’t the first time scholars had tried and failed.

But the Dalton era was truly a time of unparalleled geniuses and visionaries. Dalton himself, wielding immense influence, began to study the fundamental nature of electrical currents, leading to the discovery of "electrons."

Electrons, he theorized, had to be part of a larger atomic structure...

As "atomic theory" was proposed and refined, and as radical ideas like "atoms can be split" and "elements can be transmuted" began to flood the scientific community, the religious institutions panicked!

If elements could generate energy through atomic division, and if that energy originated strictly from the physical elements themselves, then where did that leave the "gods"?!

That era became a chaotic yet magnificent turning point. It was not only a civil war between slaves and slave owners, but also an ideological war between science and religion! The Nix people were finally attempting to break free from the intellectual shackles of their faith!